


When the numbers matter

by isquinnabel



Category: Lost
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-04
Updated: 2013-02-20
Packaged: 2017-11-10 05:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isquinnabel/pseuds/isquinnabel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Lost drabbles, written for various challenges. Each chapter is a single stand-alone drabble, usually based off a prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Days and hours [Juliet]

**Author's Note:**

> Characters: Juliet Burke.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _summer_.

  


Most days, the sun is out. It warms the backs of their necks, dries their laundry. Sudden, intense storms are also commonplace, and she's learnt to predict their exact moment of arrival.

The weather is pleasant. But it's the same, year round. Maybe an expert would notice some subtle change in humidity, or in air pressure. But she's not an expert. And the weather stays the same.

She still counts the days as they pass, scratching out an internal tally. She knows the exact number of hours that have passed since she hugged Rachel goodbye.

If it wasn't for the counting, she wouldn't even know that it's summer.


	2. New kids on the block [Kate, Tom Brennan]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Tom Brennan, Kate Austen.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _path_.

  


Sometimes his dad takes him fishing. He still needs help getting fish off his line, because they thrash around like crazy and he can't control them.

Right now, he feels like freshly-caught trout are trying to escape from his stomach.

Katie acts like normal, crisscrossing her way along the path and crashing through loose stones. She likes to walk loud. She said once that the sound makes her feel like she's going somewhere.

Tom thinks he'd sort of like the sound of turning round and going home. Maybe.

"This is a dumb idea. It's just a stupid lunch box."  
Katie keeps walking. "It was _your_ dumb idea, scaredy-cat."


	3. They'll stop asking in time [Zach, Emma, Juliet]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Zach, Emma, Juliet.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _home_.

He's living in an orange storybook house, and the days meander like slowly-turned pages. It gets easier to pretend he's not terrified.

Tuesday morning, the rain crashes down. He and Emma play in the rec room with one of the nicer grown-ups. They teach her Emma's complicated hopscotch rules; she teaches them how to play pool. Zach clutches her hand while Emma practices, awkwardly controlling the too-big pool cue.

 _Crack._  
"Nearly, Emma. Try sinking number four."  
Emma stops. She barely glances at the scattered balls.  
"Juliet, when can we go home? I want Mom."  
Zach feels the muscles tighten in Juliet's hand.  
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I don't know."


	4. Day 1 [Sawyer]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: James "Sawyer" Ford.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _throw_.

  


He's been here for hours and the sand feels like a second damn skin. He'd wanted to go inland a little, but then that crazy noise had happened ( _what the hell was it?_ ) so he ditches them all for the water's edge instead. Throws bits of airplane into the ocean.

The others scurry round like some kinda ant colony, everyone desperate to be heroic. Signal fires. Oceanic lasagna. Ignorin' all the corpses. Tryin' to fix some poor sonuvabitch with shrapnel in his chest, not dead yet but as good as.

He ain't no hero but he ain't dead either, and it's the second one that's leavin' him gutted.


	5. Pour me out [Penny]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Penny Widmore, Charlie Hume.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _tip_.

  


She watches him sleep.  
Sees every rise and fall of his chest (feels every rise and fall of the waves).  
 _I'm a little teapot, short and stout._

He's a wriggler. Curled up one minute, arms flung wide the next.  
She suspects he's inherited his father's sheet-stealing gene.  
 _Here is my handle, here is my spout._

He's difficult lately. A cocktail of terrible twos and cabin fever.  
The kid needs playmates.  
 _When I get all steamed up, then I shout._

Penny gives him all she has. All she is.  
She'll give and give, never become empty.

But she can never give him _normal_.

 

_Tip me over, pour me out._


	6. Daddy's Girl [Shannon]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shannon Rutherford, Adam Rutherford.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _under_.

  


Her bed is a cave, lit from the inside with a pink flashlight. It's long-past her bedtime, but the rec room is a baby-sitter's dream - giant TV, hundreds of channels, comfy sofa. They're usually too enthralled to care if she's asleep (and her fake-snoring skills never hurt). So she's curled up under the comforter, engrossed in _Boy-Crazy Stacey_.

She's oblivious to the passing time, and gasps in surprise when her door _crrreaks_ open.  
Cat-like reflexes: flashlight off, book hidden, assume the face of someone peacefully dreaming. 

He isn't fooled (he never is).

"Shannon, honey, you should be asleep."  
Cue sheepish grin. "Hi, daddy. How was your date?"


	7. 6 Answers [Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Hurley, Aaron]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, Sayid Jarrah, Sun-Hwa Kwon, Hugo Reyes, Aaron Littleton.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _call_.

  


Jack hears a relentless mantra. _You shouldn't have left_. He dulls it, the way his father taught him.

Kate hears in present tense (baby's crying / microwave's beeping / TV's on). Nothing else matters. _Nothing else matters_.

Sayid hears nothing. The part of him that _feels_ is spent (this is what he tells himself). 

Sun hears nothing (but it's a nothing that echoes). A cold, empty space where Jin used to be.

Hurley hears _and_ sees. He gets the message in person. Charlie. Boone. Mr Eko. _Please. Leave. Me. Alone._

Aaron hears waves, feels sand. He wants Mommy to take him to the beach (she always says no).


	8. Most likely to succeed [Cassidy]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character: Cassidy Phillips.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _chain_.

  


You'd always been the smartest kid in the class. 

Your elementary-school teachers _ooh_ ed and _aah_ ed over your worksheets. Rows of shiny gold stars.  
It went to your head in middle-school. You were the know-it-all with a smart mouth.  
In high-school, you only pretended to try. You still left that place with straight As and kickass letters of recommendation.

And yet here you are. Split from one scumbag. Pregnant to another. Lurking out back of gas stations and bars, hawking junk necklaces to anyone who looks gullible (you know a thing or two about being gullible, don't you?).

The reunion's getting closer.  
Most-Likely-To-Succeed sure as hell won't be going.


	9. Mortgage hell [Ray Mullen, Kate]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character: Ray Mullen.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _numbers_.

It's her.

Except... no. Can't be. Looks a bit like her from a distance, sure. But it's probably just a dodgy photocopy. Besides, his eyesight's not what it used to be.

He almost leaves. 

But he doesn't. He has to double-check.

Yes, it's a bad photocopy.  
Yes, his eyesight isn't what it once was.  
Yes, it's her.

No, it can't be her. It can't. 

(It can.  
Her face, her hair, her profile.)

How can this defiant mugshot with a $23,000 bounty be the same girl who offered to make him a cup of tea this morning?

He wipes sweat from his forehead, his good arm aching. 

_Now what?_


	10. There will be consequences [Harper, Juliet]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Harper Stanhope, Juliet Burke.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _warning_.

"Goodwin!"

By the time she arrives, Ben's barking instructions. Cold and abrupt like a military commander.  
It's her husband's death sentence and she's powerless to stop it.  
But she _tried_. She _warned_ her.

 

(Making _her_ an ally had been  
sickening. But  
she had to. She had to  
keep him alive, somehow.

Desperate measures.)

 

Too late now.  
"I want lists in three days. Go!"

He doesn't even spare her a glance. It's the last time she'll ever see him and he treats her like a stranger.

The choking, burning smell of airplane fuel hangs in the air. She catches _her_ eye and hardens her gaze.  
 _This is your fault._


	11. Issues with reality [Hurley/Libby]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character: Libby Smith.  
> Pairing: Hurley/Libby.
> 
> Written for lost-in-108, with the prompt _flight_.

It's 9:42. An hour since she saw that commercial. "Have a clucketty-cluck day, mate!"

_She fell asleep during the in-flight movie and awoke to screams._

She digs her fingernails into her arms.  
It. Won't. _Stop_.

_Ten days. Four people have died. Three have… gone._

Nightmares, she tells herself. Fear of flying. (She's had vivid nightmares before, but not like this. Never like this. And never while awake.) 

_"The kids! THEY TOOK THE KIDS!"_

"Wake up," she whispers. "Wake up, wake up."

_"I'm real. You're real. The way I feel about you? That's real."_

It isn't. It's not real. (But it's something other than terror. Something to cling to.)


	12. Alone and alive [Zach, Emma, Hurley]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Zach, Emma, Hurley.
> 
> Written for drabblefix, with the prompt _chill_. Title from Rowing Song by Patty Griffin.

When the world stops shaking and the dust settles, they're alone.

As the weeks crawl past, they patch together a makeshift-home (dense trees, precious little sunlight, perpetual chills in the air). They're only children, but the past three years have given them killer reflexes. They're aiming slingshots well before he stumbles into view. 

"Whoa!" Hurley flinches, quickly raises his hands. "Uh... Hi. We met once, kinda? At the temple?" 

Silence. They respond with narrow eyes and tense muscles.

"I'm here because... well, I can get you home. Like, your real home. If you want."

 

(Their faces relax,  
just a fraction.)


	13. Unspoken [Juliet, Jin]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Juliet Burke, Jin-Soo Kwon.
> 
> Written for drabblefix, with the prompt _game_.

Jin sinks three in a row. She gets two.

Their games always go this way, the sharp _crack_ s of good shots breaking the dusty silence. There's no smack talk, like playing against James. And it's not like games with Miles, which always end in accusations of cheating. Few words pass between them. She wants to say something, but she doesn't know how she can possibly say "I understand" when, for all she knows, she doesn't. Sisters and wives aren't the same thing, really. 

Still, he's not completely alone in his grief. She hopes he knows that.

She sinks the four.


	14. 1982 [Sawyer]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character: James "Sawyer" Ford
> 
> Written for drabblefix, with the prompt _warning_.

They keep him waiting for twenty damn minutes, drowning in faded carpet and eerie silence, seconds marked with a dull _tick ... tick ... tick ..._ . They want him scared, they want him almost wettin' himself by the time they haul him in. They ain't worked it out yet; their little waiting-game tactic don't work on him. How can it? It's always the same in there. Same old song-and-dance routine, same old threats ("I've _never_ expelled a student, James"), same old wheezy pleas to straighten up.

"James," snaps a razorblade voice. "He's ready for you."  
He winks. "Thanks, Carol."


	15. The worst part of the day [Rachel Carlson/Kevin Callis]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Rachel Carlson/Kevin Callis.
> 
> Written for drabblefix, for OTP Appreciation Week. (Because, come on. These two may be minor characters, but oh, their POVs make me so sad. And they're damn shippable!)

For him, it's in the morning. Waking up to harsh sunlight and an empty bed always brings a few moments of blind panic. _Calm down_ , he tells himself. _Calm down, she's just in the shower._ He can't shake the fear that maybe, one day, she won't be there.

(She always is.)

 

For her, it's in the evening. She ends up flicking anxious glances between the clock and the front door, pacing, praying for the telltale sounds of his keys, his footsteps - his _anything_. She can't shake the fear that maybe, one day, he won't come home.

(He always does.)


	16. Community Chest [Sawyer/Juliet]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding over Monopoly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for ozqueen, because I lost a bet (lol). Apparently I can't gift individual chapters? Sad!
> 
> Her prompt was _Sawyer/Juliet, Monopoly and Dharma beers_. (Okay, so Dharma beers aren't explicitly mentioned, but they're there. They're totally there.)

Somehow, they end up sharing a cozy little one-bedroom house. She deals with the awkwardness by obsessively _doing_ things; he deals with it by speaking almost entirely in double entendre.

The first Sunday morning, rain drums hard against the roof. Monopoly starts as a joke, but the game mutates into a mock-competitive marathon that lasts for days. (She hides the beauty-contest card, because it’s too obvious an opportunity. It doesn’t make a difference, though. They start landing on each other’s hotels, and his asides never stop.)

They’re evenly matched, and no-one wins; the game ends when Miles steps on it.


End file.
